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T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

collectSPACE STS-1 Anniversary Coverage: On Monday, April 10, collectSPACE will begin publishing features about the first flight of the Space Shuttle leading up to the mission's 25th anniversary on Wednesday.

On Monday, collectSPACE will proudly feature an original interview with the crew, John Young and Bob Crippen.

On Tuesday, collectSPACE will feature the behind-the-scenes story of the STS-1 mission insiginia with commentary by artist Robert McCall and mission commander John Young.

On Wednesday, the 25th anniversary of the historic flight, collectSPACE will publish, annotated and illustrated, the contents of the mission's Official Flight Kit and crew Personal Preference Kits (PPKs).

In addition, look for updates from the various anniversary celebrations taking place throughout the country, as outlined in the NASA press release that follows:

NASA Celebrates 25th Anniversary of First Shuttle Flight

NASA today launches a series of events to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first space shuttle flight. On April 12, 1981, shuttle Columbia lifted off with Commander John Young and pilot Robert Crippen. Their mission, known as STS-1, is being remembered as the boldest test flight in history. Several anniversary activities will be broadcast live on NASA Television.

The first event will took place today at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., having aired live on NASA Television beginning at 3 p.m. EDT. The STS-1 crew addressed Kennedy employees and fielded their questions during a one-hour session.

On the actual anniversary date, NASA astronaut Steve Lindsey, commander of the next space shuttle mission, will take part in satellite media interviews from the agency's Johnson Space Center, Houston, between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. EDT.

At 10 a.m. EDT April 12, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will join Young and Crippen at Space Center Houston to honor their mission and all those who made it possible. Due to limited seating, the event is not open to the public, but it will be broadcast live on NASA TV.

At 12:30 p.m. EDT, NASA TV will broadcast an event from the Teague where the STS-1 crew, former shuttle managers and flight directors will reminisce about the historic mission for Johnson employees.

Also on April 12, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., will observe the 25th anniversary during an employee event that will feature an STS-1 video on Marshall's role in developing the propulsion systems for the flight.

At NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., astronaut Stephen Robinson will address employees at 6 p.m. EDT. He worked as a scientist at Ames during STS-1 and flew on Space Shuttle Discovery in July. At 10 p.m. EDT, the public is invited to the center to hear Robinson's experiences.

Other NASA facilities hold events on other dates. NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., holds a media briefing at 1 p.m. EDT April 10 aboard NASA's modified 747 shuttle carrier aircraft. Current and former NASA and Air Force employees will discuss the historic STS-1 landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

The NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., unveils a shuttle sculpture at 10 a.m. April 14. Wallops provided range-safety support during the STS-1 launch and tracked the shuttle during the mission.

NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, will hold a briefing at 11 a.m. EDT April 15 with a NASA aerospace engineer on what it takes to put a shuttle into orbit.

NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., will test-fire a space shuttle main engine at 3 p.m. EDT April 21. The event marks both the STS-1 anniversary and the 40th anniversary of the first rocket engine static test-firing on the A-2 Test Stand. The stand was modified to test all shuttle main engines, including those which powered STS-1.

NASA TV will begin airing a Video File segment including footage of the STS-1 mission on Monday, April 10.

Robert Pearlman

quote:Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:On Monday, collectSPACE will proudly feature an original interview with the crew, John Young and Bob Crippen.

collectSPACE recently spoke with STS-1 Commander John Young and Pilot Robert Crippen about the 25th anniversary of their April 12, 1981 mission, their memories of the flight, its legacy, and the future of the Space Shuttle era that they began.

MCroft04

"I think it's a great machine and a good test flight and it worked out infinitely better than I thought. I was really worried about ascent, it worked great, and then on-orbit was a piece of cake."

Quoted from John Young in the interview. there's that term "on orbit" again, instead of "in orbit" Did anyone ever determine the origin of this phrase. Robert Crippen also uses the term "on orbit" in the interview.

FFrench

"On orbit" makes far more sense from a pilot point of view - you're on a certain trajectory, a certain path (like "on approach"). Non-astronauts tend to think of space as something you are "in." I've noticed many astronauts say "on" when talking to peers and "in" when talking to the general public.

MCroft04

Best and only explanation I've heard. I too have heard many astronauts use the term "on orbit". Even Dick Gordon didn't know the origin of the term.

Robert Pearlman

quote:Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:On Tuesday, collectSPACE will feature the behind-the-scenes story of the STS-1 mission insiginia with commentary by artist Robert McCall and mission commander John Young.

When John Young and Robert Crippen boarded Space Shuttle Columbia for its first launch on April 12, 1981, they were both clad in USAF pressure suits with a 4-inch embroidered emblem with a "simple and direct" design by noted artist Robert McCall.

heng44

Great interviews, Robert!

Robert Pearlman

quote:Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:On Wednesday, the 25th anniversary of the historic flight, collectSPACE will publish, annotated and illustrated, the contents of the mission's Official Flight Kit and crew Personal Preference Kits (PPKs).

Twenty-five years ago, the Space Shuttle Columbia launched into history as the world's first winged orbital vehicle designed to be reusable. The STS-1 mission, with its two-man crew, introduced a new chapter for U.S. manned space flight efforts.

cddfspace

Nice coverage Robert- thanks for collecting it all for us!

Peter S

Great article on the PPKs and flown items. I did notice a particular name or two missing from the list of flown items given to various astronauts...

Do you know if Neil, Buzz, Mike or some of the Mercury 7 were given anything? Did Scott Carpenter receive a memento? Just curious...

Robert Pearlman

quote:Originally posted by Peter S:Do you know if Neil, Buzz , Mike or some of the Mercury 7 were given anything?

Shepard, Schirra and Slayton are all listed as having (Robbins) medallions in the OFK. Keep in mind though, that the astronauts did have to pay for their own medallions.

Rob Joyner

Thanks Robert! What a great anniversary this is for everyone!

John Charles

quote:Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:...a 4-inch embroidered emblem with a "simple and direct" design by noted artist Robert McCall.

Robert, thanks yet again for thorough coverage and documentation!

The anniversary has reminded me about another of my iconoclastic curiosities, this one concerning the STS-1 crew patch design. No-one seems to have commented on the similarity between the patch designed by McCall in 1979 and the shuttle program logo designed a few years earlier in 1976.

The shapes of the triangles, the triangle-in-triangle motif, and the simplistic design of the shuttle figure of the McCall design seem to me to derive from the NASA program logo. In fact, when I first saw the STS-1 patch (over 25 years ago), I thought it was just an embellished STS program logo.

Maybe after all the design variations that McCall showed to Young and Crippen, they opted for something strongly derivative as the best way to tell their story.

I just thumbed through the first and second edition of "Relics of the Space Race" by Russell Still and failed to find any discussion of the similarities. "Space Patches" by Judith Kaplan and Robert Muniz (1986) describes the STS program logo (p. 71) and the STS-1 patch (p. 72) but doesn't mention the similarities. Interestingly, it does remind us that NASA originally intended the there not be individual mission patches for the Shuttle program, only the STS logo with added mission-specific blocks (like the "rockers" on some Shuttle patches).